Business Week on INTC vs. AMD

[HenryTo]

Let's see if Intel can pull another rabbit out of the hat:

http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_48/b3910050_mz011.htm

Historically, Intel has nearly always been able to deliver when they're backed into a corner - but whatever the case may be, this intense competition between Intel and AMD can only be good for businesses and consumers (unless you were an Intel investor, of course).

[HenryTo]

Stock down over 8% in after-hours trading - however, my guess is that AMD should bounce pretty soon. Business, however, continues to deteriorate. AMD cannot afford any execution problems here but it looks like they're having just that.
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Falling Margins Overshadow
AMD's 77% Profit Rise

By DON CLARK
October 19, 2006; Page B3

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. reported a 77% jump in third-quarter profit but continued to suffer from a stiff price war with rival Intel Corp.

The Sunnyvale, Calif., company said its gross profit margin shrank significantly from the second period -- largely as a result of falling prices on chips that serve as the brains of desktop computers. Unit shipments of microprocessors rose 18% over that time period, but the company's revenue from that business only rose 9% sequentially.

Although AMD topped Wall Street expectations for both profit and sales, the company's shares fell 9% in after-hours trading. The stock traded at $24.23, off 25 cents, in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading but slid to $22.05 after AMD's earnings announcement, made after the close of regular trading.

AMD's net income for the period ended Oct. 1 was $134.5 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $76 million, or 18 cents a share, a year earlier. The 2005 period included losses from Spansion Inc., a maker of memory chips that now operates as a separate company.

Revenue was $1.33 billion, down nearly 13% from $1.52 billion a year earlier, including Spansion, but up 32% excluding Spansion. For the current quarter, AMD predicted sales would increase from the third period but didn't say by how much.

Citing price declines, AMD said its gross profit margin was 51.4% in the third quarter, compared with 56.8% in the second period. One possible reason to cut prices: courting a big customer.

Although AMD didn't discuss any specific deals, computer maker Dell Inc. announced plans in the quarter to expand the use of AMD chips from high-end servers to PCs and other server models. "I think they gave some very aggressive discounts to Dell to bring them into the fold," said Rick Whittington, an analyst with Caris & Co.

AMD's results came a day after those of Intel, which has announced a series of new products aimed at reversing AMD's market-share gains. Though Intel executives pointed to evidence of success in that effort, AMD executives also insisted their company had still increased its share of the market -- particularly in chips for laptop computers.

But Hector Ruiz, AMD's chief executive, told analysts on a conference call that the company had encountered some manufacturing glitches while increasing the output of chips for laptops, contributing to declines in its profit margin.

Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com

[rffrydr]

And Vista's now on the (coupon) horizon:

http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/newsanalysis/techsoftware/10313015.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

[HenryTo]

Again, Intel is a full year ahead of AMD when it comes to commercializing the 45nm process:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4334

[HenryTo]

Tomshardware.com on Intel's Core 2 Quadro:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/09/10/four_cores_on_the_rampage/index.html

Quote: "But that is just the beginning. The conversion to 45-nanometer production technology is slated for mid-2007, and starting in 2009, thanks to EUV lithography, Intel plans to manufacture 32-nanometer devices, at which point - if everything works as envisioned - the company could have a two-year technology edge over most other chipmakers."

At this point, AMD is still struggling to ship its 65nm processors to its customers:

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193000499

[HenryTo]

Core 2 Duo finally arrives in quantity for notebooks:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3961

[rffrydr]

Intel whacked on inventories:

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=191600943

see Jul 20 post above.

[HenryTo]

Intel's "open house":

http://www.forbes.com/2006/07/27/chips-core2-campus_cx_ck_0727intel.html?partner=links

[HenryTo]

It has been a long time in waiting, but INTC"s latest processors definitely should not disappoint the overclocking enthusiasts:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2802&p=12

The only remaining issue now is the subject of availability of these processors - and we will find out about that in the next one to two weeks.

[HenryTo]

Everybody loses in the short-run but I expect INTC to ultimately come out ahead. They're now pushing quad-core up from 1Q 2007 to 4Q 2006. It has been a long time since INTC has done this:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3421

[rffrydr]

Intel's inventories go from 81 days to 103 despite heavy disounting Pentium. In "war" everybody looses.

[HenryTo]

AMD misses. I expect AMD to start posting losses again sometime next year.
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Advanced Micro Devices misses, stock falls
Thursday July 20, 4:29 pm ET
By Jessica Seid, CNNMoney.com staff writer

Advanced Micro Devices reported Thursday sales jumped 53 percent in the latest quarter but fell short of Wall Street's expectations.
Shares of AMD fell in after-hours trading.

The No. 2 chipmaker behind Intel reported earnings of 18 cents a share for its fiscal second quarter ended July 2, up from three cents a year earlier. Analysts had been looking for profits of 22 cents a share, according to a survey by Thomson First Call.

Sales slipped to $1.22 billion from $1.26 billion a year ago, below forecasts of $1.25 billion.

[HenryTo]

The Intel empire strikes back with the release of the Core 2 Duo and the Core 2 Duo Extreme:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795

[rffrydr]

Intel cuts 1000 managers. How good can the second half be?

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14277679p-15086694c.html

[HenryTo]

Looks like AMD may be officially "toast" here.

http://www.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.aspx?i=2793&p=1

Not only does Woodcrest outperform AMD Opteron in most cases, it also does it with less power consumption. And finally, it looks like that INTC still has quad-core up its sleeves before AMD even has an answer to Woodcrest.

[HenryTo]

Intel officially declares war on AMD:

http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2006/mft06070719.htm?ref=foolwatch